


Winter clutches

by HitTheWall



Series: Boy in a box, hurt behind the mask [1]
Category: Video Blogging RPF, mcyt
Genre: AU!Toby and Clay are brothers, Angst, Brotherly Love, Demonic Possession, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt!Dream, Hurt!Tubbo, Not Beta Read, Self-Sacrifice, So much angst, Tubbo in a box, it's for the plot, lol sorry, my pals, sorry for using real names oof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27925519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HitTheWall/pseuds/HitTheWall
Summary: Clay and Toby are stuck in the forest, in cold winter. Tubbo is possessed by a demon and quickly losing his strengths.Clay is desperate. Will he agree to a deal with a devil?
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo
Series: Boy in a box, hurt behind the mask [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044849
Comments: 12
Kudos: 234





	1. The snow is falling

**Author's Note:**

> (!!!now with a small instrumental playlist!)))  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6qn8tcYnjU5ooAoKIsFtLH?si=JM-y7FCLTyOJw-HdwQ8UUw

The night was cold. Mercilessly cold, Clay felt the chilling pinpricks of winter air on his skin, in his bones, he could see his breath leaving his body in milky puffs. 

But the most freezing of all was the thought of him and his little brother being stuck in the woods. At night. During winter. Alone and without anyone to turn to. 

Clay shivered, he couldn't stop shivering no matter how much he tried getting comfortable and warm in their makeshift camp. His coat wasn't enough.

It was never enough.

He tried shrugging these thoughts off. He couldn't waste time on pitying himself. There were much more important and urgent things to worry about at the moment.

Like his shivering and delirious younger brother, unconscious on the ground, tucked into anything and everything resembling blankets and coats Clay could possibly find. Toby would've looked comedic like that, like a big cosy pinguin and Clay would've teased him for being not cold resistant at all, if not for the boy's fever-indused red cheeks and sweaty forhead. Toby was restless, but too weak to actually struggle out from the warm cocoon.

Probably plagued with nightmares.

Clay tried to shake those thoughts off. No use in dwelling on it. 

He squeezed his hands, nails digging into still warm flesh. Still alive. Still able to survive. Still able to help, to save his brother.

Clay decided to wake Toby up. To make him drink some water and feed him a bowl of still steaming broth, to help him get away from the nightmares for a couple of minutes.

He moved his stiff limbs towards the lying figure.

"Hey, Tubbs. You gotta wake up. You haven't eaten in almost a day." - Clay gently shook the soft pile, under which his younger brother lay. 

Toby didn't respond, only mumbling something incoherent in his sleep. His brows were drawn together in worry (and possibly pain - Clay thought with quiet desperation), eyelashes fluttering in distress.

"Toby, Toby, please wake up! You need to eat, you need strength to fight him! You need strength to win!" - Clay shook his brother with more force this time.

No response. Clay wanted to scream.

"Please, wake up, Tubbs... I promise, I will do anything you want when you get better. I will spoil you with candy and honey, I will take you out to see bees and I will find a place to stay, a proper place to stay! I will find a job and we will watch the snow fall from inside of our cosy place, drinking cocoa, reading bedtime stories... We will get there." - Clay's eyes felt hot - "I promise you, I will never leave. I will do anything. And everything."

Suddenly, the lying boy froze up. Absolutely still for a couple of seconds.

Clay almost went full on panic mode, screaming (and possibly crying), when Toby's eyes opened, revealing bottomless, blackest voids, the most terrifying voids Clay's ever seen.

But he was no longer afraid of this thing.

"Fucking demon, what do you want? Haven't you tortured him enough?! Leave him alone, leave him the fuck alone!"

Clay's fists shook, ready to hurt his little brother's torturer.

But he knew he couldn't. He couldn't bring harm to Toby's body.

"Calm down, sheesh. I guess this much free time from your little brother's annoying chatter made you too excit-"

"I dare you to finish this fucking sentence. I dare you, you disgusting monster." - Clay sneered.

"...too excited. Your brother is annoying. He is consistently bothering me with attempts to talk or..." - monster with Toby's face smiled sadistically - "...beg for the pain to stop."

Clay felt an explosion go off in his chest, forgetting freezing air and his sluggishly responding limbs. He let out a raw scream, eyes unseeing from fury, at an instant he grabbed the collar of the demon, staying with hatred into these dark souless eyes.

"Woah, easy there, friend. Or do you wanna hurt the little shit?"

Clay let go of the collar like it burned him. Arms shaking, he noted how pale his brother face was. How he looked weak and tired, even with those ugly eyes.

"... What else do you want?" - Clay's voice cracked - "You've taken everything from us. Every last thing. What else can you demand?!

"Now we are getting somewhere. Good boy.

Clay shuddered at the nickname.

"You see, I am a Dreamon. A creature, that feasts on life energy of humans, devoures them slowly, bit by bit." - the creature clanked it's teeth - "But your brother... That annoying brat is too weak. He drains so quickly and so... Unsatisfactory. I don't need a dead body in the forest as my "host", my "meat suit", if you will. I need someone stronger to carry my to my next host. Do you understand?"

Clay sat dumbfounded by the proclamation. He never knew what type of demon sat in Toby or how to make him leave, how to kill him. He never knew there was a chance to save his little brother.

"Then just leave! Go find somebody else to "slowly drain" or whatever! You will do both of us a favour!" 

Dreamon has clenched it's teeth, annoyed.

"Sure, good idea. Shut the fuck up, stupid human, who doesn't understand anything. Surprisingly for you, brainless degenerate, I need consent of the person I posses. And I can't leave until I find another willing host. And it just happens..." - he studied Clay with his void-like eyes - "...that I might have found one. What do you say?"

Realisation hit Clay like an avalanche: relief, from knowing he finally found a way to save Toby, confusion from monster's questionable ethics, fear from understanding, which choice he has already made.

"How do I know you're not just spitting bullshit?" - Clay was proud of how his voice didn't waver.

"You don't. But do you have other choice, really? Well, if you want to get rid of him that much, then I understand..."

"I agree, I consent, shit, just shut the fuck up. I'm ready. If you leave him alone, I'm ready."

The harsh cold Clay felt after he growled these words could have come either from the freezing weather, or from the fear the teen still felt at the prospect of being possessed and slowly but surely dying.

Or it could've been the black clutches, deformed and raw that grabbed his trembling soul, like a snake does to a baby-bird. It squized and it infected, piercing the core itself, mixing with every last thing Clay had that made him human.

It was so, so painful and alien.

Clay screamed his lungs out till he couldn't. And then he fell on the cold, iced ground.

The blackness in his brother's eyes spread, covering Clay's whole world.


	2. The ice is getting thicker

It was so, so hot. Clay opened his eyes, sweating immensely, feeling like his whole being was slowly melting, sending heatwaves in every direction. He couldn't feel his limbs or face, only a tingling mess of lava-hot pinpricks. It was weird and foreign, but it didn't hurt exactly.

But with awareness came panic. And with panic Clay's arms slowly regained feeling. His blood was still boiling, but his mind was getting more and more clear, finally sending a chilling realisation of what happened before the heat.

Dreamon.

Toby!

Clay shot upright, eyes still unseeing, world dark and burning.

He was instantly hit by a way of nausea, coals in his throat, ash in his lungs. Clay started hacking and frantically fumbling around in search of... Something. Something to ease the breathing.

The vision cleared up, somehow giving the teen less information than whatever he had before regaining sight.

Everything was white. Crystal and sharp and blindingly white. It hurt Clay's eyes, so he had to shut them.

The coughing eased up a little, giving some space for adjusting to the newfound situation. Clay opened his eyes again.

This time, beneath the piercing light he saw a patch of brown. Almost resembling a pile.

"Toby!" - the teen croaked, feeling sandpaper rub his throat. He struggled towards his brother, who's face he couldn't make up in a big brown stain of blankets.

But he got there. He still couldn't make out much, but his burning fingers felt the freezing cold of his little brother's cheeks. Too cold to be healthy.

Clay desperately clutched at Toby's shoulders, like it was a lifeline. He could feel small puffs of air from shallow breathing of the smaller boy. Alive. He was alive. He was freezing, exhausted, maybe unconscious, but alive.

"Toby, hey, Tubbs, wake up. Wake up!" - Clay tried shaking his brother again. But no response.

Audrey, Clay felt ringing in his head, like a hundred bells rang, like a thousand guns went off, like millions of nails scratched at his skull.

"What the actual fuck, what the hell, what the hell, what are you, you filthy rat?!"

Clay choked on his own scream.

"You were supposed to give in easily, why, why, why, why are you still fighting?! What in the devil's name are you?! Give up already, give up, give in!

Clay was going to puke. It was hot, hot, so hot and so unbearably loud.

"Shut... The fuck... Up..." - the teen croaked.

"If you keep on fighting, you will die! You want to live don't you? You want to spend time with your brother and something about the house, don't you? You will die and those dreams will die with you! Just stop struggling!"

The booming voice in his mind was making Clay weaker, but also angrier. How dared this monster eavesdrop on something so private and dear, and then use it against Clay?! How fucking dared he!

"If... I die..." - Clay swallowed a lump in his throat - "...Will you die too..?"

"Duh, you stupid motherfucker, of course I will! Not without your pathetic..."

"THEN GOOD!" - Clay shouted, in attempts to drown out the voice. It was tearing him apart, inescapable and so painful.

"What do you mean "good"?! Hey, hey, wait, what are you doing?!"

Clay stood up on shaky legs, doing his best to pay least attention to the a screeching, tearing his brain apart. He had a mission. He might be dying, but he wouldn't leave Toby in the middle of nowhere, just to freeze to death in the forest!

Sluggishly he gathered everything he could see with his blurry vision, mildly surprised at the strength he could master despite feeling like a burning pile of shit. After making sure everything of most impotance was packed, no matter how harshly and messily, he picked Toby up, settling the boy comfortably on his back.

The boy was so light and cold. But still breathing. Still fighting.

So Clay would fight too.

He just needed to find at least a road. At least a road would be enough for someone to notice a kid in need of help.

Clay promised to pray to anything and everything he could that some good person would notice Toby. Please, please...

As he was walking, he tried repeating the mantra louder and louder, till he could out-scream the demon in his head.

But it was persistent. It was stubborn.

"Hey, kid, listen. We don't have to do this, right? I can help, I'm quite good at many things. I can help... Let's say, deceiving people! I can show them miracles, I can make you two into local gods! Just give in, please, you don't need to die..."

But Clay ignored the voice which shook him to the core, he ignored the heat choking him, the vision swaying, the constant coughing, and his feet trembling under him. He had to get his little brother to safety, even if it was the last thing he did.

Clay clearly remembered the path towards the road. He had memorised it in case of emergency. Traders and travelers often went there. He thought one day this information would be useful, but was too scared to get near it since he and Toby were exiled from the village. Now was finally the time.

The teen let his legs carry him to the destination, each step fighting more desperate for control over his own body.

At some point the creature stopped bargaining and just started screeching bloody murder. Clay almost lost his footing first time it happened. Almost. So he kept on dragging his feet through the white snow of the forest, barely seeing anything, trusting only his sixth sense.

After what felt like an eternity, Clay saw the opening. The dirt left by trade carts and carriages. Splothes of brown on blinding white.

He felt something cold slide down his cheecks. It was getting even more difficult to see.

"No, no, no!!! You absolute lunatic!!! Stop, stop, stop this madness instantly!!!" - Clay felt it writhe and wail.

He didn't respond. One more step.

And he was falling.

Hitting the frozen ground face first, Clay didn't feel pain. He felt disoriented, but was still tightly holding onto unconscious Toby.

What did he trip on?

A box lay on the side of the road. Hard wood, big enough to fit a kid inside. The safest place Clay could hope to find in his condition.

He chuckled without much emotion, tasting metal. The taste was refreshing on his numb tongue.

"Don't do this to me... Don't do this to us..." - Dreamon whimpered inside of his skull, weaker than before, but still strong enough to send another wave of dizziness his host's way.

Clay felt like he was puking lava. Lava full of razors.

Then another fit of coughing hit.

It was exhausting. It took the boy everything to not collapse right there and now.

But despite everything, he sat his brother down in the wooden box, which would hopefully protect Toby from snow and wind, and covered the boy in as much layers as he could, leaving all their edible supplies on the top of the pile.

There were only one thing, left to give.

With trembling fingers, Clay fished out a photo from his inner pocket. There were two boys, facing camera, smiling happily. The figures blurred. The world was tilting again.

In a hurry, Clay has made the photo into two parts. With unseeing eyes he shoved one shaggy piece into the box. The other piece found it's way back into the inner pocket, the most secure spot the teen could come up with.

He was running out of time. He could feel it. The demon felt it to, thrashing about in his mind with newborn energy. With so much rage and desperation.

He would kill the fucking thing. He would drag it to hell with him, if needed with his teeth only.

One last look sent towards the big cocoon in the box, one hazy image saved forever in the exhausted mind, and Clay turned back towards the woods.

The wind howled, the snow fell on the wide road.

While a pale fragile boy was sleeping in the box by the road, a final gutteral scream of a demon pierced the forest air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!open end
> 
> But I plan on having some more works in the series, expanding on what happens after this one.
> 
> Also sorry for torturing my favourite creators. They are much pog.
> 
> (Also, you can check out my twitter. Sometimes I draw or/and post stuff related to my writings. Yeah, something like that...
> 
> https://twitter.com/TrifflingToil?s=09)


End file.
